How July 7 bombers slipped through the net

The missed opportunities that allowed two of the July 7 bombers to slip
through the fingers of the security services were highlighted by the trial
of Mohammed Shakil, Sadeer Saleem and Waheed Ali.

1:32PM BST 28 Apr 2009

It was confirmed that ringleader Mohammed Siddique Khan and right-hand man Shezhad Tanweer were watched by the authorities meeting terrorist Omar Khyam on four occasions in early 2004.

They were twice tracked returning to Leeds, photographed at a service station and a McDonald's restaurant and filmed walking with Khyam down a street in south-east London.

Khyam, from Crawley, West Sussex was jailed for life in May 2007 for leading a plot to use fertiliser bombs on a shopping centre or nightclub following Britain's biggest ever terror trial at the Old Bailey.

It was during surveillance on him that MI5 officers came across Tanweer and Khan, who had attended a terror training camp with Khyam in Pakistan two years before 7/7.

But they were dismissed as "peripheral figures" and their activities never fully investigated.

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Just 16 months later the terror cell led by Khan slaughtered 52 people on London's transport network.

The jury at Kingston Crown Court were given a detailed schedule logging the times and activities when Khan, Tanweer and defendant Waheed Ali travelled south to meet Khyam.

The court heard a Honda Civic containing the trio met Khyam and his brother in their Suzuki vehicle in Crawley.

The group chatted briefly before the two vehicles drove around for around an hour, stopping at a retail park, before the Honda headed back north.

Pictures of Khan, Tanweer and Ali were taken at Toddington service station on the M1 as the car was followed back to the Leeds area in the early hours of the morning, stopping at addresses linked to all three.

Khyam's vehicle and home had been secretly bugged and conversations he had with Khan and his group were recorded, transcripts of which were read to the court.

During the February 21 meeting, Khyam tells Khan during a discussion on fighting abroad that travelling to Pakistan was a "one way ticket".

He advised Khan on how to evade authorities, what kit would be needed and how to carry out scams in this country to raise funds.

He said: "You may as well rip the country apart economically as well", adding how "all the brothers are running scams" such as fraudulent bank loans and trade accounts.

On February 28 a surveillance team watched two cars arrive at a McDonald's just off the A23 in Tushmore near Crawley.

Surveillance photos showed Tanweer, Ali and Khan meeting Khyam and his brother in the car park.

The vehicles were later followed travelling to Slough, Berkshire, and Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, before the Honda was followed again back to West Yorkshire.

On March 23, Khyam was watched meeting the Leeds group for the fourth time.

Covert video footage captured them strolling past a kebab shop on their way to an Islamic bookshop in London's East End.

Despite their links to Khyam, neither Khan nor Tanweer were classified as priority targets by the Security Service.

Security and police sources have stressed that at the time they believed Khan and his associates were involved only in minor fraud.

In the wake of the bombings, the Government insisted there had been no warning of the attack.

The bombers were said to have been "clean skins" who had never made any significant impression on the intelligence radar before.

Once the operation to catch Khyam's terrorist cell had wound up, it was MI5's responsibility to assess the threat posed by those on the fringes and decide what level of resources to devote to investigating them.

But the service decided Khan and Tanweer were "peripheral" figures. They were listed among the dozens of "desirable" rather than core "essential" targets and, as a result, were able to slip the net.